But I experienced that the Ryzom installation, as performed during the transition from 2.x to 3.x clients, disperses files and directories over the file system hierarchy, here and then creating issues under windows (especially, but not exclusively XP), and linux distros with file system design different from Ubuntu.

Worst are assumptions that core parts of the installation have to be located under /home/<user>/something or /{users|staff|wheel|..}/<user>/.. etc. under linux, and c:\users\<user>/something, hierarchies nonexistant under e.g. linuxes with /export/home/<user> design or windows where the ..\<user> is residing elsewhere. Maybe this is resolved over a $HOME variable or so, but still shaky.

Some Ryzomers love to compare and experiment, or prefer portable ryzom instances located on SD cards, USB sticks, or external disks. In that case, the isolated runnable Ryzom inside a single directory under which everythin resides is essential. If you are using your shop's laptop for professional work, your IT security may be somewhat unhappy when finding C:\Appdata\<youruser>\Ryzom stuff on your box while plugging an external USB3 disk (even USB2 is running fine) after work hourse would not be a problem.

I recognize the wish to facilitate installation of a single Ryzom instance parts of which are located in the individual user's space on the box. But the isolated one folder solution must not be abandoned.

Just move all files from "ryzom_live" directory to the directory you want (it needs to be writable) and launch client by double clicking on ryzom_client_r.exe (under Windows) or ryzom_client (under Linux).

It'll work and patch with next patches :)

Ryzom Installer goal was to move Ryzom to a location where Ryzom could write its files without needing Admin account.

As we learnt, nothing has changed for those who favor the old style installation (thanks, Kervala for the information), so what has been fixed has been deficient indeed, namely an installation into places where only users with administrator privileges can write.

Also, it has become possible to run more than one client from the same installation, and to adapt settings individually for different user, account, or even character related profiles. This has added a lot of flexibility, and saves disk space.